懒人煮蛋法(Lazy Egg)

This is actually a 'lazy' method to prepare水煮蛋 (boiled eggs). I would like to share with you this tip I learnt from 生活智慧王 (“Good Idea” - Taiwan show thru TVB8) last week. We have tried it out and it works so damn well! Extremely simple! No sweat!



1) Place two pcs of tissue papers inside the rice cooker and sprinkle them with water (not too wet).
2) Put in the eggs.
3) Close the lid and press "Cook" button.
4) Wait till the button jumps up.
5) The eggs are ready.

By using this method you will never have to worry whether the eggs are over-cooked (hard-boiled) or under-cooked. The egg yolks will turn out just nice, not too dry. (This is provided that you did not forget and leave them too long inside the rice cooker after cooked lah ok).

You don’t have to kor hui (jaga api) or kor chui (jaga air).

You don’t have to do any washings nor cleanings.

The speed is faster than using ordinary boiling method. This is because the water sprinkled will turn into steam and compressed inside the rice cooker to cook the eggs.

You can peel the egg shells off very easily.

"这个杀手不太冷" 长褛

I called this long coat as "这个杀手不太冷" 长褛! (directly translate will become 'this murderer is not that cold' :). I am not sure of the material but it is very light weight and resembles nylon synthetic kinda material.

Guess the price! I bought it yesterday at RM9.90 only from 168. Hard to believe uh?! It's true.

It was a night at first planned to go for Mickey Mouse Band.

It ended up at Kafe Crepes instead.

When we drove near Green Lane, Cean asked whether if I have visited this ISLEE and 168 boutique warehouse. I said No. She claimed to have bought some really cheap clothes at 168 before. Therefore we stopped by these two places to have a quick look since it was still ~30 minutes away from our appointment time with YY.

Later on we proceeded to our crepe session at Kafe Crepes. It has been at least half a year since I last visited here.

We called it a day after finishing our 2nd round at Pulau Tikus market at ~10.30 p.m. We were all sleepy liao. Mind you, I have been sleeping rather early for the past one week especially the day when I had the fire fighting training ha!

Perhaps Love (如果 . 爱 )

爱 没有 恨 没有 抓 不来 摔 不掉

It has been days and yet this phrase and its melody still keep bouncing in my mind. Tiuk virus liao ! :)

Directed by Peter Chan (陈可辛). Starring Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武), Jacky Cheung (张学友) and Zhou Xun (周迅). Hong Kong. A muse appears in Shanghai to intervene in the lives of two actors living out a love triangle both onstage and off.

What I wanna say after watching this movie :

1) I wish there were more musical or singing scenes. I wish those circus scenes were to be played slower coz too lao juak, my eyes really did not know where to focus to.

2) The scene of Jacky Cheung's vocal performance (singing solo), made me think of the "Phantom of the Opera" straightaway! Why?! I guess it must be his costume hmm?!

3) "A movie -within -a -movie" story made me watch until tao hin hin. Too many switching of scenes made me confused. I only started to grasp the meaning of certain scenes or conversations after browsing through the "Perhaps Love" official website. Now only I realize "Oh , OK. that's the conversation for the 'movie-inside', not the 'actual life'.

Listen to the main songs, watch the MV and korek more on the storyline (the making of movie <制作特辑>) at Perhaps Love (如果 . 爱 ) : <看 . 片段> Video Clips.

Another movie which I like from Peter Chan is 甜蜜蜜(1997) aka Comrades: Almost a Love Story.

Do you still remember this scene in 甜蜜蜜?!

Lok Lok

It’s been ages since I last ate Lok Lok. Last Saturday at the very last minute Wdy, CE and I drove down to Pulau Tikus to eat Lok Lok. Each of us only ate a few sticks as kae liao (加料) other than our main dish.

Whenever I asked them, “Ei, sek liao boey?”
They answered, “Sek liao” .
“Er…better sak ka ku lah hor?!” Then I would soak in again, waited a little bit longer. Ha!

1st thing - I was kia si lah, still haunted by the possibility / warning of introducing worms into my body.
2nd thing - we couldn’t help but kept watching out the “high cholesterol” food.

Our discussion went like this:
“Octopus oh, I already ‘mark’ it very long liao loh, but don’t dare to take nia.”
“Wahlau, how come all GREEN colour stick one (Green = most expensive one)? Only 1 to 2 plates with red or yellow colour one nia ah?”
“Wah, jiu hu ah! High cholesterol one loh. That siput also same.”.
“That plate is hae kor izzit?”
“Haha! Hae kor also you don’t know ah?!”
"You see? It shrinked until this small after cooked".
“Ai…all also high cholesterol one, seafood one, don’t know which one to choose?!”
“Aiyah, mai kuan a neh cheh lah, eat first lah.”
“Which is the one out of all these that got the highest cholesterol level uh?”
“Chiao nui!”
“Bingo!”
Mind you, that table still got another 3 ladies sitting together with us. Ha!

I guess the taukeh will sure ‘sapu’ us if he overheard this. *Grrrrrrrrr......*

Farewell again

Today we had a farewell lunch at EQ coffee garden (buffet). A total of 43 persons attended.

EQ sponsored this cake. It was a very THICK pure chocolate cake. Most of us ate only one bite each. Sorry lah!

Whose shoes uh?! (Ya, "crazy one taking such photos!" . I know :) )

Ronda Butterworth

Today we had our whole morning spent at Butterworth.

After going to Jawi for chai koay, I suggested to take the opportunity to visit the Raja Uda market, the largest market in Penang on the way back. (I have been longing to visit it since long time ago oh!) . Mind you, I really had a tough time trying to park my car coz it was so damn congested. Every single space available at the nearby residential area, shophouse area or opposite the road there was parked. It was very common to see people parking their cars far+far+far away to walk themselves up to the market.

The Raja Uda market was located by the road side. You will not miss the very long stretch of stalls starting from the traffic light junction there because that was where the bad traffic started. All the stalls were jumbled up inside there, not confined to only one street, but spread throughout the many cross-roads there, the so-called cabang-cabang lah. Ah ha! it was rather messy but I LIKE IT! Ya, I like such kind of market which is still unorganized or not yet allocated inside any appropriate MPPP buildings. That reminded me of the Sartok Market back in Kuching, Sarawak too.

We just had a quick ronda for ~20 minutes or so then we realized that the market was really LARGE and definitely needed MORE time to explore if we were really keen on ‘looking for something’. We decided to come back some other time during weekdays or perhaps when the little kid was not brought out together with us.

I WILL BE BACK ! :)

On the way back, while passing through the Wolley Avenue (if not mistaken, I think this area which consists of the whole stretch of 3-storey shop houses is called so), I came across this Kocha Kopitiam (Jalan Raja Uda, Butterworth). Hmm…its style was very much similar to the Old Town Kopitiam at Prai Megamall. Hence, we stopped by to try it out.

One glance at the menu, it offers wider range of choices than Old Town Kopitiam. It also serves 'proper' noodles and porridge. (Old Town Kopitiam serves nissin instant noodle right?! :) ) We ordered garlic bread, butter kaya roti, milo, teh o ais and classic kopi.

GG Nite (II)

This year annual dinner. I went partly because of Erra Fazira too, ha! :)

The photos of our Glamorous & Glittering Night, here you GO!

Soft Hard Union (软硬天师)

The other day I heard one song at don’t-know-where.

The cheery melody went “Chi chi ko chi ka ki, chi ko chi ka ki, paa paa paa…..chi chi ko chi ka ki, chi ko chi ka ki, paa paa paa……”

I knew it was familiar, most probably one of those albums that I love listening to very long time ago. Until much later (a few days later perhaps), then suddenly it came into my mind, "Ah ha! it was from Soft Hard Union - 軟硬天師 <廣播道FANS殺人事件> (released in '93)! "

<廣播道FANS殺人事件> album cover was featured as the 1st picture from the left.

This album of my brother went missing when I was back from uni. Ever since then I never listen to those songs anymore.

Lately I browsed from the net and found that the latest release (Sept 2005) was actually this one <软硬联盟 SOFTHARD ALLIANCE> (the 3rd pic from the left). These are their Best Collection (精选集). (FYI, they are no longer releasing any 'new' albums since 2003).

I guess that's how I heard the song. It could have been played by the CD vendors near the food court, market or etc.

Italian

Everytime when I was there at Aver I picked up some interesting articles. Remember the zsa zsa zsu ?

This time I wanna share with you some Italian words that I learnt from one of the magazines while I was there over the weekend.

Si – Yes (是)
No – No (不)
Ciao – Hi (你好)
Grazie – Thank you (谢谢)
Permesso – Sorry (对不起)
Arrivederei – Bye (再见)
Ti Amo – I love you (我爱你)
Sei Bello – You are very handsome (for male) (你很漂亮 (男士))
Sei Bella – You are very beautiful (for female) (你很漂亮 (女士))
Quanto costa? - How much? (多少钱)

Yoon Ah

Looking back the photos that I saved, I still love this one the most.

Recipes and Traveller

I have helped Wdy to lelong off her used VCD/CD player last week. It's been with me for nearly two months or so and I was relieved when it was finally out. Phew! This week comes another item – a used Canon 35mm camera (not by her).

Buying is easy. Lelong is not.
Earning is hard. Spending is no sweat.

I have a habit of collecting certain articles of Next Magazine (壹周刊), East Week (东周刊) 等等 before I ‘trashed’ them (to be more exact - donated them to charity orgz). I filed them up, but now it ended up occupying too many files. Hence I think I will have to look for alternative ways.

The topics which I collect are mainly:

Cooking Recipes (厨乐无穷, 汤水, 双如谈食, 大厨教煮) - mainly Cantonese or HK dishes (since the magazines are published in HK). There are also taiwanese, western and other food including desserts.

Food Articles - from the titles alone you can guess how interesting the contents would be. (流行食讯, 开边饭, 温食男女, Food Court 大食堂, 蔡澜-未能食素, 新食力 plus 饮食资讯, 食为Scene, 时令美食, 食识性也, 食物王, 粤食粤开心, 新味阁New Taste, 打牙祭, 刁嘴四方) – hopefully one day I will be able to turn some of those images inside the the articles into real dishes (ha!).

Traveller (天地任我行, 大游行,千里千寻, 旅行舍 Travel Around, 周休二日, 背包客, 番禺仁我行) – get to know a lot of countries or cities related to their lifestyles, cultures, food & etc. Kinda interesting and informative one.

Paper Bags

The renov. has finally OVER on Thursday. We started to clean up since then.

I threw away or 'donated' some things to colleagues as well. One of them was the collection of these paper bags.

At first .....

Then .....
More closely ......And .....

Intro to MicroE Design & Fabrication

I have finally finished studying this book. Phew~~! You know what?! Since I am pretty much a ‘bio’ type of person, I have always been paying salute to those people who specialized in EE (Electrical & Electronics), Physics or equivalent. How on earth could they have comprehended all these uh?! :)

This book is good in terms of providing a very basic overview of what I aim to understand. Basically it covers the following:
Basic Electronics
Fundamentals of Integrated Circuits
Crystal Growth and Wafer Preparation
Circuit Design and Layout
Wafer Fabrication
Assembly, Packaging and Final Test
Circuit Types
(感谢Mr 同事 借我这本书,并且无限归还期)

Now at least I know roughly what are these terms about : “p” type, “n” type, CMOS, bipolar, Bi-CMOS, doping, n well, source and drain, gate, flats, scribing, ingot, photo mask, reticle, lattice, patterning, photolithography, anisotropic etching, ion implantation, dopant ions, diffusion, anneal process, CVD (chemical vapor deposition), metallization, CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) ……
(ok, if you don’t know what I am talking about then perhaps it’s time for you to take up one similar book to start reading too, ha! :) )

Night View of Singapore

Here you go the night view of Singapore from Equinox, the top of Swissotel.

~7.30p.m. ~8.30 p.m.

~9.30 p.m.

无眼看

Sometimes I pity those air-stewardesses who need to deal with barbaric and inconsiderate people.

During the flight from KL to Penang, there was this male passenger who put his luggage bag underneath the seat. He was told by the aircrew to place it on top cabinet since his seat was next to emergency exit doorway. He at first reluctant and then later he said OK but he needed the air-steward to help carrying on top because he got back ache. The air-stewardess said “I will help you, you just need to give me one lift to assist me putting it up”. Yes, after a few attempts, she managed to get it on top without second man’s help. His luggage size is much bigger than the standard size allowed to carry on board, and heavy too. Wouldn't it be 'easier' for him to check his luggage in?!

The most irritating part is this indian guy started to switch his handphone ON when the plane was descent for landing. Mind you, not yet landed, but just about to start landing! We were still high up in the sky. Phew~! Then he started calling (not yet landed still) ! I guess he couldn’t get through and repeated calling and calling…. numerous times.

As far as I am concern, most airlines advise passengers to turn off all electronic devices as the aircraft door is about to be closed. After take off, passengers may be told which devices can be operated during flight. Once descent for landing has started, passengers are advised to turn "off" electronic devices.

For safety reason, passengers were requested not to use cellular telephones as they may interfere with flight communications or navigation.

From the way he tried to hide it from other passengers’ sight while both switching the cellular telephones on and starting to make calls, I knew well he was AWARE of this regulation.

So, how could this fellow still be acting in such a selfish way har?!Grrrr………..

Johor

It was lucky that I did not freeze myself off during sleep as I have left my sweater in their company car the night before.

The second day (16/9/05) was an even more rushing day. Since I woke up later than planned, I have got only ~ 15 min to take my breakfast at Swenson and check out before the driver came to fetch us at 7.30a.m. Therefore this time I really did not have much appetite for breakfast.

The journey to this plant took us ~2 hrs. This was a newly set up plant, more spacious and impressive than the one in SG. The managers here are more handsome too (Ha!). We started what we should do immediately upon reaching there as we knew very well that we were short of time.When it came to one particular process which I was told to emphasize on, I took nearly 1 hour. I felt sorry for them too as I have dragged their lunch hour a little bit late.

We drove to town to have our lunch at Beijing Restaurant. 6 persons in total. I was told that the taukeh of this restaurant has opened four restaurants under the same name in Johor alone, covering both halal and non-halal markets. This time we had chinese food (Yes!). The dishes were delicious but still I got to close-one-eye-up when talking about cholesterol. :) There was one special tiny cup of vege juice for everyone before the main dishes were served. It was 菜心汁 - vege blended together with pineapple. Hmm...surprisingly very good taste.

After lunch, we continued till ~4.00p.m.before we departed to airport. We dare not take the risk of departing any later than that since the roads' traffic to Senai airport was told to be 'unpredictable'. From there onwards the most torturing part of the 2-day-audit-trip began. The long journey from Johor -> KL -> Penang nearly drove me nuts. We waited about 2 hrs at the Senai airport -> transit in KL we waited another 2 hrs (connecting flight from KCH was delayed due to aircraft down at Miri). I was very exhausted that I dozed off during the flight from Johor to KL. But then I became awake again when it reached KLIA, hehe. (why?! coz got more stores / things to see already mah :)).

I went out to departure hall there for dinner, walked around and bought 1pc of Famous Amos handmade soft cookies. (I started to like this particular fresh-baked soft cookies since my first try on it last year at KLIA. I am not one who is into either biscuits or cookies but then I really like this kind of really-soft 'wet' cookies) . I visited the bookshop and found out that both Candace Bushnell and Sophie Kinsella got new releases oh. Hmm...I shall check them out further at Penang later. I met colleague and friends too in the same flight.

The KL-PG flight took off at ~ 10.40p.m. finally. Reaching home already ~ 12 midnight. Gosh!

Equinox - foie gras

First day (15/9/05) :

We had a quick lunch at singapore airport ~ 11.30a.m. We proceeded to the vendor's plant in Yishun and started our 'work' per agenda ~ 1.30 p.m. - 6.00p.m. It was tiring in overall but I got to learn a lot too.

Then we were brought to The Equinox, Swissotel The Stamford for dinner. Altogether 6 of us. Hoho...the food was very good indeed but I must confess that the panaromic view stole the show. Standing high up at the 70th floor, the night view of Singapore from the top of Swissotel was simply spectacular! The restaurant's three-tier design and floor-to-ceiling windows promise every table has a view. Our table was overlooking the whole downtime Singapore, the business district, the Esplanade and the Singapore River.

I would say that this was one of the best dining experiences I have ever had so far.

Each of us ordered the set dinner except one lady who is a vegetarian. It is very thoughtful of this restaurant to take care of vegetarian diners too.

Our set dinners started with lip-smacking hors d'oeuvres:
~bread
~fresh oysters (per additional order) - very juicy and solid, from new zealand(?!). The best part is they did not seem to have that kind of 'weird' sea-taste.
~smoked salmon
~cream soup with lobster in stick
~foie gras (goose liver) - this is my first time on 鹅肝. Actually none of us knew what this dish on the menu stated was until the dish came and people started asking what this dish was actually. Someone mentioned "it's liver." "Er.. it is the duck liver" "Er...Goose liver ". Then all of us especially me started "Oh! that's 鹅肝 lah! Aiyoyoh...". I have seen many culinary programmes mentioning on it many times but I have never tasted on it so far. Just one week ago, I came across a TVB8 chef programme in which one chef was interviewed on what his favourite dishes were and he recommended another chef's on this foie gras dish at one of the Lan Kwai Fong's (兰桂坊) restaurants at HK.
Main dishes : Either tiger prawn with scallops set or lamb ribs set.
(I ordered the tiger prawn set)
Dessert : sorbet. (hmm...this is definitely a lot better than normal ice-cream or pudding)
Also : Savouring red wines throughout the whole dinner. :)

This whole Equinox dining took us more than 2 and 1/2 hrs. It was served in slow pace albeit the concern of us desiring to leave at 9.00p.m. Hmm...ended up nearly 10 p.m.when we reached the hotel. That of course also meant -no Takashimaya for me. :(

Upon finished checking in, it was already ~10.30p.m. (we actually waited kinda long to check in due to over-booked rooms). I went straight to the 7-11 at Paragon to 'shop' first before returning to room for shower and joining them back later at Rose Lounge, Level 1. I did not order drinks anymore as I have really had enough for tonight. We just sat there and chit-chat for a while before the 'cinderella' time hit off.

(The follow-ups of this post are Johor, Night View of Singapore and 精致菜肴 ).

Dream Bedrooms

Under the fwd mail titled "Dream Bedrooms", I like these three out of all the 26 pictures. They look cozy, not too bright and also not occupied with too many stuffs.

Save money

My saving money tips.

1) Don't go shopping malls simply to kill time .

2) Don't simply buy anything. Think twice before buying. (My lelong experience told me - to buy is very easy, but in order to sell your items off is not). This mainly includes clothes, accesories, cosmetic and other products.

3) For health consumable products, make sure I'll be confident in finishing up at least 70% of the products then only I buy. (still trying .....:))

4) Accumulate and run several errands at one time.(I know penang is a small island and people tends to travel here and there wildly day in day out with no sweat. Remember this : petrol, money, energy & time ar all inter-related.)

5) Stand firm when signing up courses. Sign only when necessary. Must dare to say NO to 'promotion'.

6) Reuse and recycle. (This is more towards hobbies rather than saving :) )

7) Do housekeeping often. This way will alert me on how 'complete' I have for my stuffs.

8) Cancel additional credit cards. Immune to their gimmicks.

Basically, cut down the times of 'going out' = cut down your expenditure.:) But....hunting for food once in a while will certainly violates above rules right?! then it's OK lah. ha! :)

I want to stress that I do not like people behaving very stingy. Therefore I am not going to be one either. Spend wisely rather than thriftlessly.

I am so happy when knowing that the longest shopping mall at the coastal highway is resuming construction after being abandoned for soooo many years. Another one is the upcoming Giant at Jalan Tengah in a few months' time. All these are located at south-west region of Penang. VERY GOOD!

"I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You"

I actually came across this Evita soundtrack last year when I was kinda 'stuck' in having to use my bro's car for a period of time.

This song is so lyrical that I can't help listening to it again and again. I like Madonna's voice in this soundstrack for it's crystally clear.

[Eva:]

It seems crazy but you must believe
There's nothing calculated, nothing planned
Please forgive me if I seem naive
I would never want to force your hand
But please understand, I'd be good for you

I don't always rush in like this
Twenty seconds after saying hello
Telling strangers I'm too good to miss
If I'm wrong I hope you'll tell me so
But you really should know, I'd be good for you
I'd be surprisingly good for you

I won't go on if I'm boring you
But do you understand my point of view?
Do you like what you hear, what you see
And would you be, good for me too?

I'm not talking of a hurried night
A frantic tumble then a shy goodbye
Creeping home before it gets too light
That's not the reason that I caught your eye
Which has to imply, I'd be good for you
I'd be surprisingly good for you

Also like:
Another Suitcase in Another Hall
High Flying, Adored
You Must Love Me

The original CD went missing. I managed to get another 2nd-hand original CD (good condition : 9/10) through lelong at minimal cost.

Yi Shu Poison

Here is the list of my collection on Yi Shu.
You can say that I have been 'poisoned'. Again, not addicted oh, but 'poisoned' by her. :) (Those who reads Yi Shu novels will know what I mean uh!)

For me, buying Yi Shu is no-sweat ! I will grab any new arrivals on shelf which are of long series (not short series har). There is no need to read prior to paying. Of course, this generosity only applies on Yi Shu long series. :)

185 错先生
188 女神
192 黑羊
193 老房子
194 不羁的风
195 故园
197 寻找失猫
198 寂寞的心俱乐部
199 紧些,再紧些
200 如果墙会说话
201 这双手虽然小
202 天上所有的星
203 要多美丽就多美丽
204 幽灵吉普赛
205 我答应你
206 印度墨
207 蝉
208 艳阳天
209 一个女人两张床
210 只有眼睛最真
212 明年给你送花来
213 一点旧一点新
214 她成功了我没有
215 悄悄的一线光
216 吃南瓜的人
217 花常好月常圆人长久
218 小紫荆
219 同门
220 我确是假装
221 这样的爱拖一天是错一天
222 嘘
223 她的二三事
224 月是故乡明
225 早上七八点钟的太阳
226 邻居太太的情人
227 如果你是安琪
228 紫色平原
229 我情愿跳舞
231 电光幻影
232 蓉岛之春
233 爱可以下载吗
234 雪肌
235 特首小姐你早
236 葡萄成熟的时候
239 乒乓
240 恨煞
241 孪生

(blue - from rental house)

Mentioning on books - Ya! I have always wanted to share good books with friends. I do not mind lending but I do MIND if you borrow them and put them aside, never wanted to read them after months of keeping them. It will even more pissed off if they became M.I.A after some time.

zsa zsa zsu

I came across this "zsa zsa zsu" thingy in Bella magazine while having scalp treatment this afternoon. I think this is the article mentioned by YY the other day so I quickly jotted it down to share with any of you who may not know the actual meaning of it.

Carrie quoted this in "Sex & The City" series.

"Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than zsa zsa zsu."

1st zsa means "when the stars touch the water"
2nd zsa means "the sound of candle flicker"
zsu means "and so do you"

In mandarin it can be translated as:
"当星星碰触海面那一刻,
当烛光摇曳时的声音,
都是一种令人魂萦梦牵的感觉."

So now have you got it?!

Aviation - Learn To Fly

Back to 2003, this was one of my dreams.
That time I have just released myself from the NIIT course for about half a year.
This is the catalogue file (inside got the medical check up form, membership application form & etc) I got from Tanjung Flying Club, a place where I everyday drove by after finishing work. I would always slow down my speed in order to take a glimpse on that plane.

The captain even offered to let me have a 'feel' of it sitting inside the plane during their practical lessons. Hehe.... cool uh! Anyway I did not get to 'feel' it eventually due to 'pai sey' for I knew well that I couldn't commit on enrollment 'that' time looking at 'that' price. It was ~RM16k. Oops!

The total fees include the following :

1) training fees
~admin fee
~joining fee
~theory
~practical : 12-hrs solo and 33-hrs dual

2) licensing and examination fees
~radio telephony license
~private pilot license (type technical)
~license grant
~flight test

And...'that' perhaps one of the reasons 'flying' remains as one of my dreams still:)

End of 2004 - after watching the HK "Triumph In the Skies" drama series lent by Gee, the 'dream' was awaken and this time it was even crazier - extended to "Flying to Italy" trip....